presence, the vital influence of his spirit, and rejoice in his praise and the salvation of the world, to the full satisfaction of our heart. But at that glorious feast of the Lamb, our souls will be all pure, all love, all peace, all joy, and reach the source of all excellence, which no language can describe. New fountains of knowledge, of spiritual pleasure and happiness will be opened unto us—a never yet experienced intimacy with Christ and his Church, which will render us as blessed as it is possible to become in this world. But these words indicate a double feast: The Lord sups with his friends, and enjoys their faith, love and vital hope; and the believers enjoy him, as their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. 1 Cor. i. 30. Rom. xiv. 17. Blessed are they which are called to this feast of the Lamb.

Verse 21. To him that overcometh will I grant, to sit with me in my throne. It is remarkable that the Laodicean conquerors are here promised a more glorious reward, than any of the faithful combatants in the former charges, Those at Thyatira are to have power over the nations, and will be employed abroad in the king's service; the Philadelphians are to superintend the priesthood and the government of the Church: those at Sardis are to be employed at court, the temple, and in new offices to be established in church and state; but the Laodiceans are to be ministers of the interior affairs of state, which still denotes a higher honour, more abilities and confidence, than any of the former promises. But they are also deServing of a superior reward, for their conflict was greater

and more severe.

A throne denotes royal authority and government. This emblem refers to a custom of the ancients, who made their thrones wide and spacious, so that more than one person could sit on them. They shall sit with the King of kings, and Lord of lords, on one and the same throne, and parti cipate in his government, as his ministers of interior af

fairs in that kingdom, which he is about to establish on earth during the Millennium. Dan. vii. This is the highest honour, and next to being the bride of the Lamb.

The Laodicean conquerors have stood the day which tried men's souls. They entered the field of battle, where all the powers of darkness, which had fought by separate detachments in former centuries, pitched their generai camp and place of rendezvous-where the remnants of Paganism in church and state, superstition, infidelity, the revolutionary spirit of anarchy, liberty and egotism, made a united and last attack on the Church of Jesus Christ, which is to decide her fate on earth forever: We may anticipate important effects from the most vigorous efforts of the enemy of mankind, in the execution of a plan, which has cost him centuries of consideration and artifice, and whereof the beast from the bottomless pit, the true Antichrist, is both the first result, and chief instrument.

Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Here the Lord evidently distinguishes between his throne and the throne of his Father, as two distinct and separate governments. He was exalted to the throne of his Father, in his human nature, in consequence of the conquest he made by his victorious sufferings for the redemption of the world. The throne of his Father denotes the government of the Universe, and his throne the goverment of Jesus Christ in this sublunary world-the theatre of his redeemed family, which the Father has given him as his own inheritance. As the Father has exalted the Redeemer of the world in his manhood to his throne, in order to accomplish the divine purposes of His eternal councils; so the Lord Jesus promises to exalt the faithful, victorious combatants in Laodicea, to the administration of his government in this lower world. Blessed communion! unspeakable honour!

He that hath an ear among the Laodiceans, let him hear what the Spirit of Jesus Christ saith in the Churches.

It will now be an casy matter, by the help of such strong features and distinguishing characteristics, which the Lord has placed before us, to decide that grand question, who these Laodiceans are. Let us take a retrospective view of this Church and place all the principal features, which the Lord has described as distinguishing characteristics, at once before our eyes. They are represented,

I. By their very name as a people which hold the supreme power of their rights, jurisdiction, and judgment, in their own hands; which may refer both to their mode of civil and church government.

II. By being called the Church of the Laodiceans in the

plural number, as consisting of many distinct parties who yet have a common tie by which they stand united as a Church.

III. As a Church of Jesus Christ, and one of the seven candlesticks, by which her orthodoxy, at least as to essentials is acknowledged, though she has added many things of her own, for which reason she is also denominated the Church of the Laodiceans.

IV. The gospel ministry of this Church is lukewarm in

all its administration. They neglect the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, which are the life, fire and savour of Christianity, and preach ingenious, flowery discourses on morality, supported by philosophical arguments and motives, which only appear to advantage in such writings as those of Seneca, Cicero, or the Stoics.

V. This ministry is unsound in certain points of doctrine concerning the depraved and fallen condition of man, and the absolute necessity of God's grace in his restoration and recovery unto divine favour and gospel obedience.

VI. There are revivals of religion among them, of a

new and distinguished kind, by which the Lord in a special and powerful manner knocks at the door of

their temple. Many are roused to a sense of their danger, and turn victorious combatants in the great conflict, then pending between the Lord Jesus and the powers of darkness, concerning the very existence and duration of the Church of Christ.

VII. Since the whole series of these seven Churches arises in succession, the following from the preceding one immediately before it, we shall therefore have to look for these Laodiceans among the Protestant communities, who are the precedent Church of Philadelphia. It cannot be the Romish church, for that is a hierarchy; it cannot be the Greek church, because Philadelphia did not proceed from her; it cannot be the whole Protestant church, for that exists prior to it, and is promised to remain till the Lord comes. Neither does it denote those infidel societies in Europe, who during this time of falling away, have made public confession of Deism and infidelity; for they are far beneath the character of a Church of Christ at all, and have forfeited their eternal inheritance. My tremulous mind feels itself unequal to the decision. The Protestant communities in England and America will determine the question, who these Laodiceans are-and who are their ministry; whether they refer to the Russian church, or to themselves.

These seven charges constitute the first part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his servants, in which they receive instruction, censure, and comfortable promises, con cerning those times and circumstances in which these churches exist, and how they should conduct the administration of their offices, as becoming a Christian ministry. I cannot close these charges of Jesus Christ,the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, to his gospel ministry, by any thing more suitable and impressive, than the following words from Massillon's charges to his clergy: "But the

Church is not, God be praised! disgraced by many of so profligate a character: yet it cannot be dissembled that there are some, who, by their lukewarmness in religion, or their attachment to the world, weaken the efficacy of their ministry. For not keeping alive in their breasts the spirit and the grace of their calling, by prayer, by meditation, by a life of sanctity and holiness, they have neither power nor inclination to speak of the things of God. They perform the duties of their sacred function without zeal, and without interest, and by consequence, without a blessing: they pronounce the most awful and affecting truths with an indifference and insensibility which deprive them of all their force; the coldness of their heart freezes the words on their tongue; and it is not possible that they can inspire their hearers with the ardor of religion, the divine fire of the love of God, when they do not feel a single spark of it in their own breasts. For we must apply our leisure to meditation, and engage our heart in piety, if we would expatiate on the holiness of the gospel, with glory to God, and edification to our hearers; if we would inspire those who violate its precepts with a dread of God's displeasure, if we would persuade them to avert his wrath, and secure his favour. Hence it is, that where "holiness to the Lord" is not eminently conspicuous in the life and, conversation of the ministers of the gospel, many people depart from the service of the Church, unconcerned for their sins, and indifferent about their salvation: hence the preaching of the gospel without success, the prayers of the Church without avail, all the ordinances of religion, and all the means of salvation uncdifying and unserviceable to Christians."